Corythosaurus
Corythosaurus ("helmet lizard") is a genus of herbivorous dinosaur that lived in Late Cretaceous North America. Like other duckbills and some other late Cretaceous herbivores, Corythosaurus had huge numbers of teeth crammed together into "batteries" forming a single grinding surface on each side of the upper and lower jaws. This allowed the dinosaur to process large amounts of food at once. The hadrosaurines had broad, "ducklike" snouts to cut a wide swathe through the herb layer, while lambeosaurines such as Corythosaurus had narrower snouts and presumably fed more selectively. Corythosaurus is known from many complete specimens. The holotype skeleton is only missing the last section of the tail, and part of the forelimbs, but was preserved with impressions of polygonal scales. Corythosaurus is known from many skulls with tall crests. The crests resemble the crests of the cassowary and a Corinthian helmet. The most likely function of the crest is thought to be vocalization. As in a trombone, sound waves would travel through many chambers in the crest, and then get amplified when Corythosaurus exhaled. A Corythosaurus specimen has been preserved with its last meal in its chest cavity. Inside the cavity were remains of conifer needles, seeds, twigs, and fruits: Corythosaurus probably fed on all of these. History Originating in the Late Cretaceous period, Corythosaurus was one of the dinosaurs planned for the original Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, though by the time of the 1993 inspection of the park, only 97% percent of its genome had been mapped. After the San Diego Incident in 1997, and the subsequent passing of the Gene Guard Act, InGen, now owned by Masrani Global, conducted illegal experiments on Isla Sorna, resulting in the recreation of Corythosaurus, as well as Ankylosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and a single Spinosaurus. '' on Isla Sorna.]] Along with the other species illegally cloned in 1999, the Corythosaurus ''were released into the wild after a nine month period of experimentation. In 2001, a herd of ''Corythosaurus, which had congregated with Parasaurolophus, were briefly encountered by the survivors of a plane crash on Isla Sorna. Their existence, along with the other illegal species encountered by the group, was later covered up by bribed officials. Corythosaurus could be found in several areas across Isla Sorna, notably in the western interior and in the meadows found on the western coasts of the island. It lived commonly alongside armored herbivores such as Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus ''for protection from predators. Physiology ''Corythosaurus is one of the best known and well studied hadrosaurs. As part of the lambeosaurine branch of hadrosaurs, it possessed a distinctive crest. The crest is semi-circular in shape and gave the dinosaur its name; Corythosaurus means 'helmet lizard', as the crest resembles a helmet from Corinth, a city in ancient Greece. Like many other lambeosaurine crests, it was hollow and filled with air chambers to be used for both communication and display. Some fossils found were so well preserved that soft tissue was also discovered, such as skin impressions, webbing between the hoof like toes and the ear canals. The ear was very well developed and it may have been one of Corythosaurus' main senses. Corythosaurus lived in the Oldman Formation and Dinosaur Park Formation. It lived alongside a myriad of other dinosaurs, including Chasmosaurus and Parasaurolophus. Corythosaurus.]] InGen cloned the species Corythosaurus casuarius for exhibition in Jurassic Park. However, the company had failed to acquire enough intact genetic material to clone the animal by the time the park was nearing completion in 1993. When Masrani Global bought InGen in 1998, they carried out a series of secret and highly-illegal operations on Site B, one of which was the completion of the Corythosaurus genome and the breeding of the animal. The Corythosaurus clones had a greyish body with yellow patches and orange red crests. Like Parasaurolophus, they were capable of walking on all fours or on their hind legs only.Category:Dinosaurs Category:Cretaceous species Category:North American species Category:Herbivores Category:Hadrosauridae Category:Isla Sorna species